There exists a need for a portable dataport and methodology for retrieving, inter-relating, annotating and managing documents at a point of need. This need has particular application in the construction industry, but also exists in the medical, information science, real estate management, design and engineering, transportation industry, plan and building operations, building management, emergency services, operations management and many other industries and/or fields where electronic documents must be retrieved, inter-related, managed, annotated and/or edited at a point of need.
In the context of the construction industry, as an example and not by limitation, the present invention addresses economic needs that arise from an extremely competitive industry that has low profit margins. The largest cost other than subcontracts, direct work material, and direct work labor is staff to manage the project and direct the field activities. This can be as much as three and a half percent of the construction costs, which includes the cost of the staff and the taxes, insurance and benefits required. Any reduction of field staff time or reduction of field staff numbers on projects, contributes directly to the bottom line profitability of the construction company. The present invention provides more efficient operations for field staff in order to solve the above-listed deficiencies in the construction field. The same efficiencies also have benefits in other industries and fields.
Information management in the construction industry, for the most part, is still in the paper, pencil and fax era. Most field superintendents currently use cumbersome documents and volumes of printed specifications to investigate conflicts, between contractors and/or subcontractors, building designs and/or engineering, and request the necessary information, in person, from team members. This non-automated process can be very costly and burdensome to a construction company.
The single largest cost to construction companies is their labor cost, whether for management personnel or field labor personnel. The largest variable in cost of an installation is the availability of information at the point of need. The present invention derives from these cost factors and needs and the associated benefits of faster response and turn-around times and reduced cost of labor on a project.
Another large cost of a construction project is the relocation of personnel from one work area to another due to the lack of necessary information being available for them. Reducing or eliminating these relocations by making the necessary information available to the user at the point of need, saves the construction company money and contributes to the company's profitability.
Likewise, cost issues in the construction industry arise from post-installation repairs that arise from the lack of time to effectively handle and coordinate all issues during the construction period, including punch list or action item list concerns. The present invention is designed to help track and coordinate these issues during installation and handle them immediately by electronically notifying the proper personnel of the deficiency in a timely, user friendly manner, during construction, not after.
A research study, conducted at Carnegie Mellon University, in 2003 indicated that the most ignored persons in the construction industry are the field staff when it comes to technological improvements to efficiency and information being made available at the point of need. Further discussions with construction industry leaders indicated that many of the mistakes that were discovered in the field installation were never corrected due to the inability to identify the issue, record it and quickly send it to the personnel that could correct it. If the issue identification, recordation and notification all were accomplished on a regular basis at a point of need, one large construction company suggested that it would save approximately $20 Million per year on return work.
During this same study, students involved in the study, interviewed several superintendents and project managers to determine the most desired software within the construction industry. The students and the present inventors concluded that the need for an invention to accomplish identification, recordation and notification at a point of need on the job site was missing from development in the information technology industry.
Currently, field issues are solved through a series of field and field office interactions (personal contact) that consume a lot of time for the field superintendents. Most contractors require their field superintendents to make two rounds through the construction site each work day. Anything that prevents this two round day from occurring, keeps the field superintendents adequately and satisfactorily performing their other assignments.
The present invention provides the field superintendent the freedom to stay in the field while still having adequate access to project documents. It allows the field superintendent to spend more time solving problems and communicating with the people that can provide solutions.
Other related systems have tried to solve some of the above-listed problems, yet they do not disclose, teach or suggest the solution provided by the present invention. For example, a system called, Autodesk Constructware, discloses generally a database management system for the construction industry which uploads, organizes and makes available to a user, various project documents, but only in an office environment through a hardwired, non-portable desktop requiring knowledge of computer file system management. This reference reduces the confusion sometimes caused by communication between the job site and the office. Further, the Autodesk Constructware system provides a web-based viewer for document sharing and viewing. Similar to Autodesk Constructware, Skematek also provides a construction document management service. The Skematek system requires users to have an in-depth knowledge of file system management. Skematek's service eliminates the need for a user to compile, copy and distribute copies of construction documents and further electronically archives the documents in a logical fashion. This system also discloses the ability to link documents, such as owner's manuals and warranty documentation, with construction drawings. However, neither of these two systems provide the benefits and/or advantages disclosed within the present invention, including, in particular, the View Manager's capabilities, user-friendliness, quick navigation between project documents and portability.
Another related reference, U.S. Publication No. 2005/0198354 A1, to Holloway, Jr., teaches a job site communication system and computer program used for remotely communicating documents between a job site and a remote server or to persons outside of the job site. This system comprises a hand held computer device, which allows the user to view and, to some extent, make very limited annotations on the documents and CAD drawings, which the user can then transmit off-site. The transmission process in this Patent Publication requires almost expert knowledge of computers, including electronic transmission, emailing and attachments, whereas the present invention's View Manager and field communication tool is very user friendly and requires only novice computer knowledge. The system disclosed in this Patent Publication also provides the user with the ability to communicate with off-site personnel, as needed. However, this system does not disclose a View Manager and other related features of the present invention, which allow a user to easily navigate between inter-related documents and/or layers on a particular document.
Further, Patent Publication, US 2004/0201622 A1, to Rhodes et al., teaches a document distribution system which provides free form routing of documents through a system. The flexibility of this routing is provided by facilities which allow recipients, as well as the originating user, to modify the document routing through the system. Recipients also have some limited ability to annotate the documents. Again, in this reference, the user friendly View Manager, communication tools and related features of the present invention are not disclosed, taught or suggested.